Stokes: Labeling could have protected beef exports

By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
Jan. 6, 2004
Fred Stokes, a Kemper County cattleman, says the U.S. should enforce a law requiring that processed meat be labeled with its country of origin.
Stokes said he believes an existing Country-of-Origin Labeling law, if enforced, would have protected the U.S. from the loss of foreign customers after mad cow disease was discovered in a Washington state dairy cow last month.
Stokes, president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, said his group of activist cattlemen is taking its concerns to Washington, D.C. in an effort to ensure the labeling law is not killed in a Senate vote expected Jan. 20.
Stokes' trip will come about a month after a U.S. dairy cow tested positive for mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. More than 30 countries have sealed off their borders to American beef products, Stokes said.
Country-of-Origin Labeling was adopted by Congress and signed into law as a part of the 2002 Farm Bill. But congressional leaders included a provision that delayed its effective date for two years.
The law requires labeling of all fruits, vegetables and meats with their country of origin. It is scheduled to go into effect at the end of September, but not before it comes up for another vote in the Senate.
An aide to U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said another two-year delay in the Country-of-Origin Labeling law will be considered as a part of an omnibus appropriations bill. The aide to Cochran said the senator is on record as opposing the labeling law, a position held by many Mississippi cattlemen.
Stokes said Cochran's opposition to the labeling law is "morally indefensible."
A spokesman for the Senate Agriculture Committee said Country-of-Origin labeling and mad cow disease are unrelated issues.